Last night at the inn, when the factor in Tyr-yi spoke of his having heard that a roof was put on some part of the buildings at Icolmkill, I unluckily said, ’It will be fortunate if we find a cathedral with a roof on it.’  I said this from a foolish anxiety to engage Dr. Johnson’s curiosity more.  He took me short at once.  ’What, Sir? how can you talk so?  If we shall find a cathedral roofed! as if we were going to a terra incognita; when every thing that is at Icolmkill is so well known.  You are like some New-England-men who came to the mouth of the Thames.  “Come, (say they,) let us go up and see what sort of inhabitants there are here.”  They talked, Sir, as if they had been to go up the Susquehannah, or any other American river.’

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16.

This day there was a new moon, and the weather changed for the better.  Dr. Johnson said of Miss M’Lean, ’She is the most accomplished lady that I have found in the Highlands.  She knows French, musick, and drawing, sews neatly, makes shellwork, and can milk cows; in short, she can do every thing.  She talks sensibly, and is the first person whom I have found, that can translate Erse poetry literally[855].’  We set out, mounted on little Mull horses.  Mull corresponded exactly with the idea which I had always had of it; a hilly country, diversified with heath and grass, and many rivulets.  Dr. Johnson was not in very good humour.  He said, it was a dreary country, much worse than Sky.  I differed from him.  ‘O, Sir, (said he,) a most dolorous country[856]!’

We had a very hard journey to-day.  I had no bridle for my sheltie, but only a halter; and Joseph rode without a saddle.  At one place, a loch having swelled over the road, we were obliged to plunge through pretty deep water.  Dr. Johnson observed, how helpless a man would be, were he travelling here alone, and should meet with any accident; and said, ’he longed to get to a country of saddles and bridles’ He was more out of humour to-day, than he has been in the course of our Tour, being fretted to find that his little horse could scarcely support his weight; and having suffered a loss, which, though small in itself, was of some consequence to him, while travelling the rugged steeps of Mull, where he was at times obliged to walk.  The loss that I allude to was that of the large oak-stick, which, as I formerly mentioned, he had brought with him from London[857].  It was of great use to him in our wild peregrination; for, ever since his last illness in 1766[858], he has had a weakness in his knees, and has not been able to walk easily.  It had too the properties of a measure; for one nail was driven into it at the length of a foot; another at that of a yard.  In return for the services it had done him, he said, this morning he would make a present of it to some Museum; but he little thought he was so soon to lose it.  As he preferred riding with a switch, it was entrusted to a fellow to be delivered to our baggage-man, who followed us at some distance; but we never saw it more.  I could not persuade him out of a suspicion that it had been stolen.  ’No, no, my friend, (said he,) it is not to be expected that any man in Mull, who has got it, will part with it.  Consider, Sir, the value of such a piece of timber here!’